am i on track?

    So how can you look at your five category scores to know how you're doing? The first step is to make sure you don't oversimplify it. For example, if Ed's category scores are

homework
60%
quizzes
60%
tests
60%
notebook
60%
participation
60%

    ... he might have a tendency to say that he's doing equally well in all the categories. However, I'd tell him that a test average of 60% is actually pretty good for someone who is only scoring 60% on homework; I'd also say that his participation grade is probably among the lowest in the school. These five categories represent different kinds of tasks ... you just can't compare them all equally.

    So ... in order to analyze how you're doing in each of the categories, you'd have to know what a 'good' score in each category is. You can find that out by looking at this file (or this file if you are an algebra student).

    Looking at the file, you can see the average category scores of kids that have earned various grades in the last few years. If you look at these averages next to yours, you can see how you compare.

    We'll look at Ed's scores again for an example. Obviously, he'd be earning a 60% right now as his overall math grade, which would put him at a low D. If you open the file, you'll see this entry for kids who have recorded grades in the low D range:


low D (60% - 62%)
homework
70%
quizzes
53%
tests
45%
notebook
61%
participation
100%

    The data in the file will help Ed to see exactly where his weaknesses are. In this example, and compared to other kids who earned the same letter grade that he did, Ed seems to do a lot better on tests ... and has some work to do on homework and participation.

    If his goal for the class is to get into the C range, he could also study the file to see where and how much his current work differs from that goal.

    So, in summary, you don't have to guess what good scores for each of the categories are ... you can check the file to see how it has actually worked out for other kids just like you.